February 3rd marked the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, who, in 1959, died in a plane crash in Iowa alongside Ritchie Valens, JP Richardson (aka: The Big Bopper) and the pilot of the small aircraft. Holly was only 22 years old when he died, but he left behind an amazing catalog of music that remains relevant and powerful nearly 60 years after his death. His legacy is evident in the many generations of rock musicians who followed in his footsteps who picked up on his mix of country and blues riffs, and no less than The Beatles were obviously influenced by Holly and The Crickets work.
I don't want to dismiss the contributions of either Valens or Richardson, but I've been a Buddy Holly man since I was 13 years old, and while I may put Buddy away for a while, every year I put him back on in heavy rotation.
Last year I had an opportunity to visit the Buddy Holly Museum in Lubbock, Texas - the birthplace and longtime home of Buddy Holly and the Holley Family. The Museum is not overly large, but well worth the money to step inside, and very well curated. But it also is a reminder of how very young Holly was when he passed, with so few artifacts inside as his career came and went in such a short timespan.
I posted about the visit on tumblr, and I still think about it from time to time. And I'll always wonder what Holly's career would have been like had he lived.
In Lubbock, you can also visit the restaraunt where Holly first played live. There's also the Buddy Holly park, and a few other places I can't recall off-hand.
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